F1 Belgian GP: Max Verstappen fastest in qualifying but pole position goes to Carlos Sainz
F1 championship leader V♏erstappen was untouchable in qualifying, but the Red♔ Bull driver will take a grid penalty for changing his engine and start 15th.
In total, seven drivers will drop down the orde♑r for Sunday’s grand prix, making for a highly unusual qualify🐷ing session.
Verstappen’s blistering lap left him more 0.632s clear of Sainz, who failed to improve on his final run in Q3 after dipping his wheels into the gravel, though the Spaniard will still 𒁏take pole.
Sergio Perez was third-quickest but will mo🌼ve up to the front-row of the grid for Sun𓄧day’s grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
Charles Leclerc ended up fourth but alsܫo has a grid penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation and will therefore drop to 16th, directly behind his title rival.
Fernando Alonso will line up third despite being outpaced by penalised Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon, and will be joined on the second row by former McLaren teammate Lewis Hamﷺilton.
The seven-time world champion was left shocked to end up 1.8s off the pace of Verstappen ♍as he qualified seventh, ahead of Mercedes teammate George Russell.
A superb performance from Alex Albon saw the Anglo-Thai driver make it inওto Q3 for the first time this season. Albon was ninth-quickest but will line-up from sixth ♕on the grid.
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo qualified 11th but will st﷽art from seventh due to a host of penalties for drivers chan༺ging engine components.
Also starting the race inside the top 10 are AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, who was 12th-quickest, and Aston Martin pair Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel, deꦬspite the latter setting the 16th-slowest time.
Williams’ Nicholas Latif💎i will line-up 11th, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsuಌnoda and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, who will be the highest-placed penalised driver in 14th.
Behind Vers🐟tappen and Leclerc, Ocon and McLaren’s Lando Norris w🧜ill start 17th and 18th after their respective engine penalties are applied.
Guanyu Zhou and Mick Schumach⛎er will share the back row for Alfa Romeo and Haas 🍨respectively due to their grid penalties.
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